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Pokemon TCG Decklists and Articles

Shuppet

Deck Discussion

Playing TOSSED (the Shuppet / Garchomp C Deck)

Ed 1 Comment

For this article, I’m going to focus on the play of the “vanilla” version of TOSSED.  It was built to be a Shuppet replacement, so I play it a lot like I would play Shuppet.  You may want to read about how the deck came to be before you continue this article.  If so, head over to the “TOSSED: A Rogue Ahead” article at www.SixPrizes.com.  Before we get into the play of the deck, I’ll give you a list of what the deck might look like.

Pokemon
3 Uxie – LA 43
1 Uxie Lv. X – LA 146
2 Crobat G – PL 47
1 Shuppet – PL 92
1 Dunsparce – HS 41
1 Toxicroak G (Promo) – DP 41
2 Garchomp C – SV 60
2 Garchomp C Lv. X – DP 46
1 Ambipom G – RR 56
1 Unown Q – MD 49		 Trainers
4 Poke Turn
4 Pokedex
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Plus Power
2 Expert Belt
1 Luxury Ball
2 Dual Ball
3 Energy Gain
2 SP Radar
2 Power Spray
1 Premier Ball
1 Energy Exchanger		 Supporters
4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy
2 Pokemon Collector
1 Bebe’s Search
1 Aaron’s Collection		 Energy
2 Psychic
4 DCE
1 Cyclone

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National Championships

Cheffords’ 2010 Pokemon National Championships

Cheffords 4 Comments

Here’s my report from the master’s division at this year’s Nationals.

First, a little about the event. My daughter and I have been planning to attend Nationals this year ever since we failed to go last year. We knew we were golden when we convinced my wife to come along and treat it like a family vacation. The drive from Michigan was easy, about 5 hours, and we made it with plenty of time to get the early registration t-shirts. We didn’t really grasp the scale of the event until Friday morning though.

The venue was gigantic, easily the biggest single room I have been in for a long time (in fact I am having difficulty recalling another time when I was in a room this size.) There are tons of people milling about. There are people in line for the Video Game Tournament. There are side rooms with vendors, open playing, and just hanging out. In the main room there are separate sections for each of the age groups, one for league play and side events, one for eating with tables and one for the video game stuff too.

Throughout the weekend we see people we know from Michigan but also folks we recognize from online like JWittz and Adam from SixPrizes.com. We spent a lot of time hanging out with Team Warp Point (Good Game) who make us honorary members before the weekend is over; YOU GUYS ROCK! And of course we make new friends too. If you didn’t make it this year, I strongly encourage you to plan on being there next year because it is a blast and there is a ton of poemon fun to be had.

Round 1 vs. Brandon (Indiana) with Dusknoir LvX, Gengar LvX

This was my first game and first donk of the event. It went down like this – I go first starting with Mr. Mime; I draw and pass. Brandon opens with Duskull who evolves using Reaper Cloth into Dusclops (who has 80 HP) and attacks with Dark One-eye, discarding to force me to discard. I use Roseanne’s Research to get Uxie and Shuppet (I have 2 PlusPower, 1 psychic energy, and Warp Point in hand); using Uxie’s Setup gets a Crobat G, another PlusPower, and a Super Scoop. I Flash Bite with Crobat G, hit heads on the Super Scoop, scoop and replay Crobat G for another 10 with Flash Bite and then attack with Shuppet with 3 PlusPowers for 60 and the KO.

Brandon takes it okay and we head over to the league tables for a friendly game that goes down to the wire but I win again.

Record: 1 win, 0 losses

Round 2 vs. Matthew (Indiana) with Jumpluff

Matthew goes first opening with Baltoy and passes. I don’t remember the details but I am able to KO the Baltoy and win the game with another donk.

Record: 2 wins, 0 losses

Round 3 vs. Hanaan (Rhode Island) with CurseGar

We chit-chat during setup and find out we are both “pokedads” with kids playing in the other age groups. Hanaan opens with a Spiritomb and Gastly and I immediately know what I am up against. I have played and beaten many CurseGar decks in past tournaments so I know what to expect and I feel confident. On my second turn I KO his Spiritomb and think I am off to the races, however on his next turn he uses Pokemon Collector to get 3 more Spiritombs from his deck and proceeds to trainer lock me for the rest of the game. I never faced a CurseGar that ran and used 4 Spiritomb, but all I have to say is when the game was over and I showed my hand to Hanaan we counted 14 trainer cards.

Record: 2 wins, 1 loss

Round 4 vs. Jay (Iowa) with Kingdra

Jay isn’t very talkative during setup and I get the sense he takes playing very seriously. I mulligan my first draw and Jay takes his time looking at my cards to figure out what I am running, he doesn’t look happy. We shake hands and flip our cards, he has a lone Horsea and I have either an Uxie or Dunsparce (I can’t recall which.) Jay goes first and passes. I play a Buck’s, attach a PlusPower and an energy, and drop Crobat G to the bench using Flash Bite for 10 damage. My attack takes care of the 40 remaining HP and gives me the game. That’s 3 donks out of 4 games, this is a huge difference from my deck’s performance during the 3 Battle Roads I went to.

Record: 3 wins, 1 loss

Round 5 vs. Alex (Indiana) with Dialga G LvX, Garchomp C LvX

We setup and I can’t believe that I am opening with a lone Unown Q. Seriously, I only run one of them and to not have any other basics in hand is unbelievable. I am dreading the donk but hope for the best as we turn over our cards. Alex has a Garchomp C active and a Baltoy on the bench. He goes first but doesn’t the double-colorless energy he needs to donk me and passes. I take a deep breath having survived the opening turn and gather my wits trying to get a quick KO. I use Roseanne’s Research to get Dunsparce and a psychic energy to exploit Garchomp’s weakness. My turn goes well and I KO the Garchomp, however that is the end of my good luck because Alex quickly sets up a Dialga G and proceeds to Deafen me for the remainder of the game. At some point he uses Judge to shuffle Dunsparce and the energy back into the deck. I am left to draw and hope to get an energy or another Roseanne’s but to no avail. He eventually attaches an Expert Belt on Dialga G and with a clever play with Crobat G he gets his last prize card. Another game where trainer lock wrecks me; my final hand had nearly 20 trainers in it.

Record: 3 wins, 2 losses

Round 6 vs. Katheryn (Alabama) with Fainting Spell Gengar

I don’t recall the details of this match but the executive summary is – my deck runs like a clock and I take 6 prizes while Kathryn struggles to get anything threatening setup for very long. I do remember being pleasantly surprised when she uses Shadow Room to KO my Mr. Mime. In the end though, I win without much trouble.

Record: 4 wins, 2 losses

At this point I am feeling pretty good about my deck and my playing. I begin to hope that I might make it into the top-cut.

Round 7 vs. Robert (New Hampshire) with Gardavoir, Nidoqueen

Another “pokedad” here with his kid playing in the seniors division. Robert confesses to being extremely tired because of the long drive the day before and I hope this bodes well for me. Another match where I don’t have many details but Robert plays well enough in his exhausted state to stave off my flurry of attacks and hold me to 3 prizes before time is called, too bad he already has taken 4 prizes. I really feel I could have won this matchup if it weren’t for the 2 Judge cards he played to shuffle away all of my resources at the right moments only to follow up with a Psychic Lock attack to limit my ability to recover. Hats off to Robert to play a smart game in such a state.

Record: 4 wins, 3 losses

This is the last game for the day and despite 3 losses and hopes of top-cut waning, I am feeling pretty good and look forward to the following morning.

Round 8 vs. Rebekah (Louisiana) with straight Machamp

The pairings are posted on time and we are seated and getting setup. During the small talk Rebekah informs me that if she losses again she is going to drop to which the guy next to me concurs. I don’t know what to make of this really because I don’t see the point of coming all that way only to drop before the final round, but whatever I guess.

This game is like the last few because I don’t have many details but do I know that I take one prize per turn and end Rebekah’s tournament (she dropped.) She struggles to get setup only to play to promote a Spiritomb when she needs to play Night Maintenance and Luxury Ball. The one Machamp she does get out and on the bench doesn’t last long enough for her to use because I flip heads on a Pokemon Reversal and hit it hard for the OHKO.

Record: 5 wins, 3 losses

Round 9 vs. Paul (Washington) with Jumpluff, Luxray GL LvX

This one is pretty fresh still in my head so I have more details than the last few. I go first and open with a Crobat G active and something else on the bench. On Paul’s first turn he gets his bench full and evolves up into a Jumpluff with 1 energy and OHKOs my Crobat G. I have a great hand and am able to get Shuppet, energy, several PlusPowers, an Expert belt and OHKO his Jumpluff. This seems to surprise Paul as he goes into he second turn. Again he gets a Jumpluff out and KOs whatever I have active (no Mr. Mime yet.) I know this is a slugfest and I a turn behind so I have to do something to stall him out. I play my turn going for the knock out on his Jumpluff but I see my opening for the next turn to get ahead on prizes. The plan I hatch is to use 2 Poke Blower+ to force his Claydol active so I can KO it. This will slow his recovery down at least for 1 full turn if not longer. As it turns out, when Paul gets control again, he searches for more Jumpluff but isn’t able to find it, he thinks about going for Luxray GL but decides not to. He promotes Chatot and uses Mimic to shuffle his hand and draw 14 cards. I decide to proceed as planned and go after his draw foregoing the easy KO on Chatot (he only has 60 HP.) I also get Mr. Mime in play with Unown Q attached.

It is a little early to celebrate, but I am up in prizes and he doesn’t have a Jumpluff in his deck. He decides to go for Luxray GL LvX and Bright Looks up an Uxie (why he didn’t go for the Crobat G I cannot say) only to retreat in favor of Chatot again. He Mimics for another new hand of 13 cards. Around this time I draw into a Cyclone Energy and keep it in my hand knowing that at some point he will attack with Luxray, leaving him active which is too much HP for me to one-shot. The last few turns are a blur to me, but I know he is obviously trying to get 3 energies on his Luxray in order to KO my Mr. Mime but doesn’t seem to have enough energy left (his multi-energy is already in the discard). My last turn of the game goes like this, I draw into a second Poke Drawer+ which I use to get the last PlusPower and a Crobat G, I retreat Mr. Mime and promote Dunsparce attaching cyclone energy. He switches Luxray for Chatot. I attach all of my PlusPower to Dunsparce and know I have the KO, however I also see Hoppip on the bench and feel like I can get the double KO if I get lucky on a couple of Super Scoop Ups and that is exactly what I do and it wins me the game.

Record: 6 wins, 3 losses

I decide that I have a slim chance still to get into the top-cut of 64 and sort my deck while waiting for the standings to get posted. After a while the standings go up; I finish 79th, well out of top 64. In my flight there were 25 players with 6-3 records who make it into the top-cut. Even so I had a great time and am very happy with the way my deck and I played at the end of the season.

Tourney Report

Battle Roads Report: The Source, St. Paul, MN

Ed 7 Comments

Shuppet - PlatinumI’m going to keep this short. Maybe Omar will add his report, and mine won’t be as interesting. In fact, mine probably isn’t that great, but since it’s the first time I’ve played in top cut, I figured I’d better add something for the archives.

The details will be a bit blurry and maybe inaccurate. I didn’t take any notes, and I didn’t have my camera.

Game 1: Mark – Eevee
Mark goes first and attaches a call energy to his 50HP basic. He calls for Eevee and something else. On my turn, I KO his Eevee. He goes again, and doesn’t do a whole lot. I think I may have had Mr. Mime active. On my turn, I KO something else. Mark scoops.
1-0

Game 2: (different) Mark – Jumpluff
Mark starts with active Azelf (IIRC). I donk.
2-0
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Tourney Report

What I (re)learned at Battle Roads – Okemos, MI

Cheffords 4 Comments

Hey everyone, Cheffords here with a few hard learned lessons from my first Battle Roads this spring.

First off let me say that I had an abysmal day, only getting 1 win out of 5 matches! It is because of this poor showing that I decided to write this article, because you have to look for the silver lining no matter what. So, even if you have a losing day, you can reflect on what you’ve learned and apply that to your next outing.
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Regional Championships Tourney Report

Pokemon Regional Championship, Angola, Indiana

Cheffords 175 Comments

Following my good showing at the Michigan State Championship (we won’t mention my meltdown in top-cut), I knew for sure that I would be taking the same deck to Regionals. The problem I had was I wanted to do a little tweaking but wasn’t able to do any play testing at my local league. Fortunately I have a group of friends at work that like to play during our lunch. I built Pikkdog’s Flyperior deck and a typical CurseGar to play against. I figured out a nice tactic against the Flyperior deck, but wasn’t realy consistant in winning. Testing against CurseGar was really tough on me (I don’t think I won a single game) and it taught me a lot about how that deck works.

Based on my testing, I decided on the following tweaks to my deck:

-2 great ball
-1 pokedex
+1 Copycat
+1 Unown G
+1 Cyclone energy

I didn’t get to test these tweaks, but I printed my deck list, packed my bags, and hoped for the best in the morning. We live in Michigan and the event was held in Indiana, this meant we were in for a drive that Google Maps says is 2 hours long. This of course didn’t count the construction underway on our route, so make it 2 hours and 30 minutes.

We arrive, get registered and wait for the day to get underway. Age division rosters get posted and masters has 146 players, 8 rounds of swiss parings with a top cut of 32. I planned on taking notes throughout the day and did pretty well, but as the day wore on I got more and more disctracted so the details of my later matches aren’t as strong as my earlier ones. Here’s how my day played out:
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State Championships Tourney Report

2010 Michigan State Pokemon Championship – Okemos Convention Center

Cheffords 18 Comments

Shuppet PlatinumHey there, Cheffords here. This is my first tournament report, and first post to TeamOmar.com. I hope you get something out of this, because I know I do when I read other people’s reports.

A little about myself: this is my second season playing the Pokemon card game. I got into the game when my daughter asked if she could start collecting the cards and I said yes but we had to learn the game too. Since then she and I have been going to league and tournaments together pretty regularly. My first season was a huge learning opportunity and it took me a long time to get enough knowledge of the cards and various strategies to feel like I was able to compete. Things changed this year during the very first City Championship when I ran a vanilla Shuppet deck and won first place. My daughter has been running Kingdra since Legends Awakened came out and she took third place at the same city’s.
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Deck Discussion

HGSS Shuppet Donk Deck – Dunsparce GS

Ed 39 Comments

Last month, I posted talking about my Shuppet Donk Deck. The lists posted there didn’t take any of the HeartGold SoulSilver cards into account. To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot that HGSS brings to the deck. There is only one real big thing that HGSS allows this deck to do, but it’s enough to keep the deck alive and not fade out.

Oh, speaking of fade out, there’s a Pokemon in HGSS that has an attack named “fade out.” Isn’t that what Shuppet’s main attack is? Let’s take a closer look.

Dunsparce (from the GS set) is a 50HP basic Pokemon that can do 20 damage and return itself (and all attached cards) to your hand. Shuppet’s main attack does 30, so why would we want to sacrifice 10 damage in a donk deck? I can think of a few reasons: weakness, resistance, and attack cost.

When I say weakness and resistance, I’m not talking about Dunsparce’s (or Shuppet’s). If you play the deck well, they will never be attacked. I’m talking about the defending Pokemon’s weakness and resistance. In the past, if you played Shuppet against a Psy resistant foe, you might be in trouble. You didn’t have any other options. Now, you have Dunsparce. Also, in the past, the only weakness you could exploit was Psy, but now you can switch it up and get an easier KO on that Flygon, Garchomp C Lv. X, or whatever.

Another big thing about Dunsparce is that he gives you another colorless attack. I say “another,” because you already had Uxie. Uxie wasn’t the main attacker in Shuppet Donk, but he was there if you needed him. If you needed to clear some bench space or wanted to do another Set Up, you could always Psychic Restore placing Uxie at the bottom of the deck. Maybe you could even Dusk Ball him back the next turn. His attack was colorless, but, because it wasn’t an attack you wanted to rely on, you probably wouldn’t run any energy besides Psy in the deck. Now, that’s all changed.

What do you do when you are up against Spiritomb AR with a standard Shuppet build? Well, you hope and pray that you can KO that Tomb ASAP. Dunsparce has another answer, and it’s called Cyclone Energy. Dunsparce can use the Cyclone Energy to blow back the defender and still attack that turn (which Shuppet couldn’t do). Cyclone Energy is quite nice here. If you want to use its effect, just drop Dunsparce, retreat your active (to bring up Dunsparce), then drop Cyclone. If you don’t want to swap out the defender, drop Dunsparce, drop Cyclone, then retreat your active (to bring up Dunsparce).

If you still don’t believe me, take a look at the SixPrizes article titled “A New Friend for Shuppet!” It’s not a long article, but there really isn’t a whole lot to say, and there are some good comments there.

So, maybe I’ve sold you on the idea of Dunsparce, and you’re all ready to build your Dunsparce Donk Deck. Well, now I’m going to show you my current build that runs only 1 Dunsparce and 1 Shuppet. I keep reading deck discussions about different ways to build this sort of deck. Whenever I see a title about a Shuppet deck, I try to at least browse the decklist. They rarely impress. The deck is about raw speed, and people keep mucking it up with extra Shuppets, Banettes, weird tech Pokemon, etc. I’m not saying that mine is better than theirs, but I think it is.

If you want to understand how this deck works, I suggest some background reading. Check out SLOW DECK’s “UR Double Donked.Dec – The original.” It really is quite a deck. I even ran a similar build in a City Championship before moving to Shuppet. The straight Uxie build is ultra potent, but the Shuppet build adds consistency. Just take a look at that Uxie deck, though. Ain’t it lean and sexy? That’s how I think the Shuppet version should look. It’s still lean and sexy, but it’s a bit more grown up and can deal with a bit more adversity.

I know. You want the list.
Dunsparce GS

Pokemon: 17
1 Shuppet PL
1 Banette PL
2 Crobat G
4 Uxie LA
4 Unown R
1 Mr. Mime MT
2 Unown Q
1 Dunsparce GS
1 Unown G

Trainers: 37
4 Poke Turn
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Poke Blower+
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Pokedex
4 Plus Power
4 Quick Ball
2 Dusk Ball
1 Luxury Ball
2 Night Maintenance
2 Expert Belt
1 Pokemon Rescue
1 Pokemon Communication

Supporters: 3
3 Roseanne’s Research

Energy: 3
2 Psychic Energy
1 Cyclone Energy

Deck Discussion

Shuppet Donk (Aka T1 Shuppet) Decklist

Ed 2 Comments

I don’t have a great article to go with this. I wanted to post these decklists mainly for archival reasons, but if you are someone that’s stumbled upon these, please feel free to leave any questions in the comment section. I’d be happy to elaborate on how the decks play.

First off, I want to present what I feel like is the basic T1 Shuppet Donk decklist. This doesn’t have any specific tech in it. That would be left up to the player to tweak. All this deck does is aim for a T1 double-donk. When it misses that mark, it will almost always get a single OHKO on its first trainer turn. Your first trainer turn will be maddening for your opponent as you cycle through the majority of your deck looking for Expert Belt, 4 Plus Powers, Shuppet, and an energy. On the way there, you will, no doubt, be dropping Crobat G for damage, Poke Turning him for more damage, Poke Blowering for damage, and Super Scooping for damage (or for Uxie’s Set Up Poke Power).

The draw engine is powerful enough to deck yourself on the first turn, but with Shuppet you don’t need to do that. When you have enough trainers piled on Shuppet to KO the opponent, you don’t need to keep drawing cards (unless you want to see if you can finish off a benched Pokemon with a Blower/Crobat). The main card drawer here is Uxie, but there is plenty more. Unown R really does work wonders here, as his Retire Poke Power allows you to sac him to draw a card. All the Pokemon search can grab an Unown R, and Pokemon Rescue and Night Maintenance can recycle them. In this deck, Quick Ball really shines. Most of the time, it will get you an Unown R or an Uxie. Either way, it’s a win. Sometimes you’ll come up with an Unown Q or Unown G when you don’t need them, but at least they don’t take up bench space (since you can attach them to another Pokemon). Dusk Ball is good for when you have to attack with Uxie (as you will need if Shuppet gets prized). Otherwise, you can just burn it to see what’s on bottom, hope for an Unown R or Uxie, and then Set Up.

The majority of the cards in this deck combo well with Uxie. They can be burned for some effect, and then you can Set Up for more cards. I often draw 6 or 7 cards when I Set Up. The only problems here are extra Energy, extra Supporters, and a full (or near full) bench. Early Plus Powers and Expert Belts can be stashed on a Crobat G (because you’ll Poke Turn him later) or Uxie (if you have one down already). Of course, you want them on Shuppet, but sometimes you don’t draw into Shuppet right away. Remember, you can always attack with Uxie, get him back into the deck, and grab him with a Dusk Ball. The only drawback here is that you will end up putting his Expert Belt and Plus Powers back into the deck. I do run 2 Expert Belts, and an Uxie attack (if it will KO) with one Ex Belt is a good way to get one out of your hand when you have two.

Okay, I didn’t intend to add so much text, so here are the decks. This is the vanilla skeleton. In this version, some or all Roseanne’s Research can be replaced by Buck’s Training, Cyrus’s Conspiracy, or Pokemon Rescue. Dusk Ball can be interchanged with Great Ball (but I don’t like that Great Ball won’t activate Set Up or Flash Bite). You can run less energy if you want, but I add 3 just in case I need them against a late Mr. Mime. An early Mime can be dealt with via Crobat/Blower. If you want other ideas on how the deck can be modified, check out this article documenting my Spiritomb Shuppet decklist.
Uxie
16 Pokemon:
1 Shuppet
2 Crobat G
4 Uxie
4 Unown R
1 Mr. Mime
2 Unown Q
1 Unown G
1 Spiritomb

37 Trainers:
4 Poke Turn
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Poke Blower+
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Pokedex
4 Plus Power
4 Quick Ball
3 Dusk Ball
1 Luxury Ball
2 Night Maintenance
2 Expert Belt
1 Pokemon Rescue

4 Supporters:
4 Roseanne's Research

3 Energy:
3 Psy Energy

Now, here’s the version that I built for my 6-year-old daughter to play in her first City Championships. It actually plays quite well, but it has some deficiencies. The notable lack of Mr. Mime and Unown Q should be obvious. That, in itself, hurts the consistency of the deck. The 4 energy and 3 Energy Search also clog up the hand. The only good thing there is that you can always fail the Energy Search if you already have an energy. 2 Shuppet (vs. the single one above) help insure that you don’t have to go Shuppetless due to prizing. Buck’s Training gives you extra damage and two cards without presenting any difficult choices (like Cyrus or Roseanne could). Crobat G always goes up as the post Fade Out free retreater in this version, but his x2 weakness can really hurt against some decks. As you can see, this version is intended to play like the previous build, while limiting choices and confusing situations (like attaching Unown Q or Unown G). It was a big success as far as teaching my daughter how to play the deck. Ultimately, though, she went 0-4 in her first tournament. I don’t really feel like going into why here, because I assume that, if you’re reading this far, you’d be more interested in the above decklist rather than the one below, anyway. Here’s the list, though.
Crobat G
14 Pokemon:
2 Shuppet
4 Crobat G
4 Uxie
4 Unown R

38 Trainers:
4 Poke Turn
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Poke Blower+
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Pokedex
4 Plus Power
4 Quick Ball
2 Great Ball
1 Luxury Ball
2 Night Maintenance
2 Expert Belt
3 Energy Search

4 Supporters:
4 Buck's Training

4 Energy:
4 Psy

I should add that I did play this build at a Pokemon League and ended up whooping up fairly handily with it. I can’t recommend playing these decks at league, though. They’re not very fun for your opponent.

Deck Discussion Practice

Shuppet Vs. SP

Ed 4 Comments

I brought my/Ava’s Shuppet Donk deck to test with Team Omar last night. I know that some people just hate the idea of Spiritomb AR in a Shuppet deck, but I wanted to see if it could help against SP. I think I played 4 matches, and 3 of them were against different SP decks. If I recall correctly, I only won 1 game. Even that one was questionable, because (for testing purposes) we replayed an early risk I took that would have resulted in a loss for me.

The funny thing is that I found all my matchups to be fairly positive. I feel like Shuppet should get completely owned by SP, but with the right Spiritomb start, I can stall the opponent enough to get a few early KOs. If one of them happens to be a Dialga G, it might just win me the game. As it was, I only did well against the fighting-heavy SP mainly due to weakness. I did pretty well against Abdi’s SP deck, too, until he realized exactly how my deck worked. Then Dialga shut me down. I had a really close and odd match with Omar (who reminded me multiple times that he didn’t run Dialga G). I think I may have won it, too, if it wasn’t for a misplay Scooping Up the wrong pokemon. It helped a lot that he started with Azelf active, so he could never Time Walk.

Here’s my decklist. I really like playing the deck, but I just think it’s no fun to play against. That makes it almost worthless for league play. It’s a neat tourney deck, because many people aren’t prepared for it and are in awe when it starts rolling. It can win against anyone with the ability to double-donk on the first trainer turn, but it completely falls apart when facing Dialga’s deafen.

The inclusion of Spiritomb is a nifty trick, but I feel like I have to run 4 Roseanne’s (and Unown Q) to support the single Spiritomb. If you start with Spiritomb active, you have to Roseanne’s for an Unown Q (and probably Shuppet/Uxie) to start things rolling. You can’t afford to run a single Unown Q, because it might get prized (and it’s also useful for Mr. Mime). Ultimately this means that the single Spiritomb adds about 6 cards to trainer lock the opponent. When it works, it’s effective. When you start with Unown Q active (or even on the bench to prevent the donk), it can really hurt. I don’t know. The base deck is designed for blazing offense, and Spiritomb (and Mr. Mime to an extend) is quite a defensive move. I have yet to decide if the deck should be pure offense or if it should attempt these defensive measures.
Shuppet PL
Spiritomb Shuppet
1 Shuppet
2 Crobat G
4 Uxie
4 Unown R
1 Mr. Mime MT
2 Unown Q
1 Unown G
1 Spiritomb AR

4 Poke Turn
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Poke Blower+
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Pokedex
4 Plus Power
4 Quick Ball
3 Dusk Ball
1 Luxury Ball
2 Night Maintenance
2 Expert Belt
1 Pokemon Rescue

4 Roseanne's Research

3 Psy Energy

Practice

Ava’s Research (Supporter)

Ed No Comments

Well, we went to the Rapid City Pokemon League on Saturday. It was the morning after a pretty good snow storm (and Christmas), so they didn’t get a good turnout. They said that they’d usually get around 20 players, but they got 3 (besides Ava, my two brother-in-laws, and myself). I was hoping to earn some Claydols, but they didn’t have any. I ended up with a new Uxie and a Snorlax. The guys there were cool, and they taught me how to play 2-vs-2. I accidentally won our first 2-on-2 match when I double-donked each of their only Pokemon for the win. The second game was much longer.

Ava wouldn’t play at league. She did play around and one of the guys played her Next Quest TFG with her, so that was cool. After league, though, I was getting convinced that Ava would not play in the City Champ on the 10th. I asked her if she still wanted to, and she said she did. I told her that she’d have to practice with me every day, and she agreed.

Sunday evening, I got her to play against me. I used VERY suboptimal green deck (Beautifly) against her, and she whooped me. I believe that she double-donked me on her first trainer turn, and she finally won after getting 6 prizes. I was very pleased with how she played. I helped a bit, but she remembered how to play most of the cards. She even used a double Poke Drawer+ the right way and got 2 Crobat Gs for a midturn prize.

This morning, they went skiing, but I asked her to play me before they went. I played my somewhat junky (but sometimes effective) SP deck against her. I don’t think she got any midturn prizes on this one, but I ran out of energy and didn’t put up a real fight. At one time, though, I did Cyclone up one of her Uxies and then put it to sleep for a couple turns. I helped her out a lot on this play, but she went drawing with Uxies/Bucks/etc. and finally (on her third Super Scoop Up) returned Uxie to her hand and KO’d Whiscash. That was pretty much the end of the game, because after 3 KOs, I ran out of Pokemon.

Before leaving to go ski, Ava asked if we could have a mini-tournament. I think we are going to get Ava, Tonya, myself, and one of Tonya’s brothers to play a 4-player bracket. If Ava wins, she’ll get a good prize, but she’ll have to do it without help this time.

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